1805 - Jefferson urges Chickasaws to move west

A map of Chickasaw treaty land lands

Jefferson initiates the
removal era by signing the secret' Georgia Compact (1802),' in
which he ceded powers reserved for the federal government to the
state of Georgia, thereby promising that the state would be allowed
to remove Indians who lived on treaty protect lands within state
boundaries.

This compact eventually
resulted in the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from treaty
protected homelands in southern states, a policy promoted and made
into law by President Andrew Jackson despite a ruling from the U.S.
Supreme Court which found removal era actions by Congress and the
president to be unconstitutional. The battle over states'
rights, first ignited by Jefferson, would be fought over the
principle of Indian sovereignty, and in time would entrain the
issue of slavery and lead to the American Civil War.